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Short abstract:

This communication proposes a transnational approach to nuclear waste infrastructures in Japan (storage of contaminated waters in Fukushima) and in France (La Hague, nuclear waste reprocessing). We explore the "upscaling" of infrastructures and the specific nuclear "residual governance" (Hecht).

Long abstract:

In August 2024, the release of Fukushima nuclear wastewater into the ocean raised concern and protests locally (the fishermen in the region feared the consequences for fish sell and consumption), but also at a more global level; it sparked angriness and protests in China, accusing Japan of polluting the ocean, although the discharge of the waters had been approved by the International Agency for Atomic Energy.

In France, a French environmentalist NGO (ACRO) expressed concerns on the release of polluted waters into the ocean, but also drew the attention on the situation in La Hague, the biggest nuclear reprocessing and disposal facility in France: “the storage of tritium in Fukushima which will be evacuated in 30 years is the equivalent of 30 days in La Hague”. Besides, they protest against the construction of a new nuclear waste storage pool in the place, to cope with the risks of saturation of the current infrastructures.

Drawing on a field work currently led in La Hague in order to analyse the types of mobilisations against the construction of this new facility, our communication aims at approaching nuclear storage issues as calling for transnational approaches, and for approaches which go beyond traditional categories such as “post accidental” and “normal operations”. Indeed, in both cases, questions linked to the upscaling (Tsing) of infrastructures are raised, and question our “residual governance” (Hecht). Through the category of “impossible infrastructures” put here at work, we propose to discuss and explore further the multi-scale conundrum of nuclear waste.